I Refuse to be Captured - Chapter 1 (Patreon)

“Thank you for tonight George, I had a wonderful time. It was almost like a dream.”

“A dream is it? I suppose so. Should we make the most of this fleeting dream then? Before we wake up and return to the real world?”

The girl smiled softly but shook her head. “I’d love to, but this is still the real world. We can’t. You have Lady Gale afterall.”

The boy stepped closer, embracing her. “That was not my choice! But you are right, I just wish we had met earlier. Maybe then I wouldn’t need to pretend so much…”

I watched those two with mocking eyes even as my companion stood next to me shaking in rage. Understandable really. Not many people could watch their fiance stepping out with another girl and not get upset.

“That…that…lowborn peasant! How dare she do something like this!” My companion hissed, looking like she was ready to commit a murder. I’d better do something before she gets herself in trouble again.

“If you damage those papers any more we’ll have to redo them.” I murmured to her.

She whirled to face me and I was momentarily stunned as I watched the moonlight reflect off her pale blue hair.

“You’re worried about the papers!? Do you not see what is happening? How am I supposed to swallow this insult?”

“I see Prince George consorting with the commoner light mage that seems to have captured his attention despite his –and your– position.”

“And you want me to do nothing?!”

Ahh, she was cute when she was angry.

“A better question is, what do you gain by interrupting at this point?” I asked instead. “George is already annoyed at you from earlier. He won’t be rational if you go over there.”

My companion bit her lip hard enough that I could see a bit of blood dripping down her chin.

“Then I’ll turn a blind eye to this for now.” She said stiffly and started hurrying to our destination.

I watched her leave for a bit before turning back to the cheating couple in the garden, still lost in their own little world. A sneer crept across my face as I burned both that sight and the sight of Alice’s pained face into my memory.

I meant what I said. Interrupting at this point would do nothing but make everyone dig their heels in and start an argument. That didn’t mean I was going to forget this…or let those two go unpunished.

-o-

Perhaps I should back up a bit.

I am Maximilian Storm, son of the Duke of Storms and am currently attending the Royal Academy for mages and nobility.

It’s the premiere institution for learning in the country and has helped produce some of the brightest minds around for decades. Unfortunately bloodlines are very important when it comes to magic, so over time the Academy has grown into the kind of place where nobles tended to be on top simply because their bloodline gave them advantages commoners simply couldn’t match.

Or so they said, but the only real advantage a bloodline gave was a guaranteed elemental affinity and more magic power on average. There were plenty of commoners that could match or even exceed those bloodlines even as a first generation magic user as seen by the commoner currently making waves by being born with both a large mana pool and the light element, Lily Solar.

The same girl I had just watched having a romantic meeting with George Stonewell, Second Prince of the kingdom and fiance to Alice Gale, the daughter of the Duke of Gales.

She was actually rather infamous for growing close with several high ranking people in the Academy such as the son of the Knight Commander, the son of the Duke of Embers, and a Priest Initiate from the Church of Light.

If that was all then I could have dismissed her as a talented, if naive, girl or a social climber, unfortunately I knew she was something else…

“Oh, Max! What are you doing here?” Lily’s voice rang out behind me.

I took a second to pull my emotions behind a mask of indifference before turning to face her.

“Miss Lily, just heading over to drop some paperwork off in the teacher’s lounge.” I said mildly, then I leaned closer to her. “Of course I did manage to oversee something pretty interesting. Did you and the Prince enjoy yourselves?”

“T-that wasn’t what it was!” Lily trembled and broke out into a light sweat. “George just wanted to show me the moon flowers in bloom, nothing inappropriate!”

I hummed and shot her a smirk. “Of course not. If you were actually trying to seduce a prince then there would be hundreds of people ready to tear you to shreds and no one would ever find your body. A smart girl like you would never do such a thing…”

Lily frantically nodded her head along with me.

“So in the future maybe you should just keep in mind what your little meetings look like to outsiders, it might save you some trouble down the road.” I turned and walked off with those parting words of advice but I didn’t go far, merely turning a corner and staying in the shadows.

Sure enough, she started talking out loud not long after I was out of sight.

“Oh man, Max is just way too intense. His capture rating is just way too high! But it goes against my Collector’s soul to leave him out, so I have to keep doing my best without getting a bad end. At least I still managed to get George’s affection raised a bit tonight so it wasn’t a complete waste…”

Yeah, I knew Lily wasn’t just some girl. She was actually a reincarnator and apparently the heroine of an otome game I had never heard of.

What she didn’t know is that I happened to be one myself, and I wasn’t about to let someone like her capture me!

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AN: Otome game setting, because why not?

Brain, why can’t you just focus on the stories I’m already writing?? T.T